Police Officers Schooled On Election-Related Offences
Senior officers of the Tema Regional Police Command have been admonished to remain neutral in the discharge of their duties during the run-up to the 2020 general elections if they hope to win the confidence of the public.
Giving the admonishing at a Legal Educational Programme on electoral related offences for senior Police officers in the Tema Region, Director General of the Police’s Legal and Prosecution Department, COP Nathan Kofi Boakye, said the police must be firm and fair and abide by the professionalism code in the discharge of their duties without kotowing to any external political interference during and after the 2020 elections.
The Legal Educational Programme on Electoral Related Offences, which was attended by Prosecutors, Divisional and District Commanders, Crime officers and Judicial officers with the Tema Region Police Command in the Tema Region, is part of a piloting programme put in place by the Legal and Prosecution Department of the Police Administration, to train senior officers on how to deal with cases of electoral related offences.
The one-day training workshop which was chaired by the Director-General of the Police Legal and Prosecution unit, COP Nathan Kofi Boakye, saw officers being sensitized on the various constitutional instruments which mandate the police to prosecute electoral related offences cases.
Officers of the Ghana Police Service were also sensitised on some electoral laws such as the PNDC law 284, Vigilantism Bill, and the CI 91 which empowers the police to prosecute electoral offenders without channelling it through the attorney general’s office.
COP Nathan Kofi Boakye briefing the press said the programme will go a long way to equip officers with the requisite knowledge on how to carry out their mandate during the elections without any challenges
He also charged officers to be neutral and fair in the discharge of their duties during the December elections, without compromising their profession in the interest of any political party.
The police administration later donated some manual hand-outs on Election Adjudication to the Tema Regional Police Command, to aid Judicial officers and Prosecutors, in broadening their knowledge in the legal framework which constitutes the Electoral body.